Moscow Sound Design
Audio Design - Moscow Audio design for the Moscow Hub will be crucial to bringing the Hub alive and ensuring the player feel like they are actually in post-apocalyptic Moscow. The Hub will be filled with an authentic Russian background track, sound effects, Dialog and atmospheric sounds. All this combined will full immerse the player in the Moscow Hub and make it an interesting place to visit in the game world. The background track will be composed with traditional instruments found in classical Russian music such as piccolos, flutes, horns, Bass Drum ect. The piece will take inspiration from classical composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Igor Stravinsky however not so much their style but more their choice of instruments and structure. The piece will be soft with instruments like the Piccolo playing melodies yet powerful with the bass drums kicking in to reflect the conflict of despair and urge to carry on that Moscow feels. It will make the player feel empowered and sympathetic at the same time reflecting on how the Moscow people feel in these desperate times. The piece will not have a hard cadence as it will loop back to the start to give the illusion of an everlasting track due to the possibility of the player spending a long time there. The background track will fade out taking the close to the least priority over any other audio as other audio is more important for the player to hear. The sound effects for the Moscow Hub will vary however will prove valuable in immersing the player with the world. Sound effects will consist of crunching of snow, guitars being played by NPCs, chiming bells ect. All of them will be recorded from scratch and then programed to allow the audio to change depending on the player's location. If the player is in a building sounds will echo more than outside and if the player is closer the sound will be louder ect. The dialog for the Hub will be vital for the players experience as poor dialog results in the player losing connection with the world. All Dialog will be recorded by voice actors in studios. This may take some time as the dialog will have optional responses from the player and the npc will respond accordingly. Each dialog option will result in the player gaining more information about the mission going into it. This means the more they can get out of NPC the more tools the player will have at their disposal to help them complete missions and find items. Also when talking to NPCs the audio will take full priority over any other audio. Dialog will be in English with characters having russian accents however when the player is out of conversations the NPCs will speak russian. This will encourage players to walk up to and talk to NPCs to gain info instead of hearing background noise. Atmospheric audio will also be used as an immersion tool to keep players feeling like there is an edge to their screen. Wind and small sound effects such as coughing and random encounters happening in the distance. This will make the world feel more alive and real to the player as if other stuff is happening around the surrounding area out of the player’s hands.